S C Grants NPP Request: Orders EC To Provide Details...Directs Akufo-Addo To Furnish Respondents With 'Better Particulars'

The Supreme Court by a unanimous decision has granted the request of the petitioners; for the Electoral Commission (EC) to provide them with details of the names and addresses of persons who were registered overseas and the manner in which those persons were registered. The petitioners are also asking for the declaration forms of all polling stations in the 2012 presidential election, the minutes of all meetings held between the EC and political parties between 2010 and 2012, and the special voters list used in the 2012 presidential election. According to Peace FM�s Bernard Quanson, the Supreme Court by a ruling of 9-0, ordered the EC to provide the petitioners with those details within 7 days. Two of the three respondents, President Mahama and the Electoral Commission (EC), filed separate applications praying the Supreme Court to order the petitioners to furnish them with further and better particulars of the petition. They said they wanted "further and better particulars" with respect to the names and codes of the 4,709 polling stations, constituencies and regions where alleged electoral irregularities took place. Ruling on that, the Supreme Court granted the request of the respondents (President Mahama and the Electoral Commission) to the election petition, for �better particulars of the petition� from the petitioners. The panel said it was only proper that the respondents to the petition filed by the petitioners were told the nature of the claims against them. The petitioners had earlier opposed the request of the applicants, arguing that the Court ought not to allow the EC to employ an application for further and better particulars to compel them to disclose the nature of evidence. Their argument however failed. The presidential candidate of the New Patriotic Party (NPP), Nana Addo Dankwa Akufo-Addo; his running mate, Dr Mahamadu Bawumia; and the Chairman of the NPP, Mr Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, filed a petition on December 28, 2012 citing irregularities at 4,709 polling stations during the conduct of the presidential election on December 7, 2013. They are praying the court to annul the results at those polling stations.